Church Heritage Record 624311

2-bay aisled nave with north transept and west tower, chancel with south chapel and north vestry.

Nave c 12m (40 ft) x 6m (19ft), 7m (22ft) wide south aisle of same length, chancel 7m long (22ft).

Radcliffe is recorded as 'Radecliue' in the Domesday Book of 1086. There is no evidence for a Pre-Conquest church here, but there was certainly one by the early 13th century and probably earlier.  The Radcliffes retained the advowson and manor until the Reformation, occupying the large manor house from which the pele tower survives.

The chancel was rebuilt in the early 14th century, the tower added and nave refenestrated in the late 15th and partly rebuilt and refurnished in the early 17th and 1665.  The chancel and the vestry were rebuilt in 1817. The East Lancashire Railway and Bolton and Bury Canal, which pass close by, and the development of the cotton industry led to expansion of the village, and there was a major 19th-century restoration of the church in 1870-73 by J Medland  & H Taylor of Manchester, who added the south chapel and extended the south transept to form a wider aisle; a west gallery was removed at this time. The vestry was rebuilt in 1903, when the church was restored again, with gas lighting installed, later replaced with electricity.

The church as it is seen today is a complex amalgam of different periods. The south aisle and chapel appears to be almost a separate Medland Taylor building, but even this contains older fabric. 

The short west tower has no defined stages, but stepped diagonal buttresses to full height and a plain crenellated parapet with corner pinnacles. The louvred belfry openings are of three stepped lights with arched stone heads and wooden mullions under a round head,  these features of the 1665 restoration. There are two inscriptions upon the tower. On the south side is a shield representing the arms of the Asshetons of Middleton. On the north side is a tablet, with an heraldic shield of the Radcliffes, with the date 1665, and the inscription EDWARD RATCLIFFE beneath. The west face has a clock face under the belfry, below this a possibly original 2-light window with ogee cusping, in turn over a pointed doorway with hollow chamfer to the arch and a hoodmould to block stops, this apparently Victorian.

The aisles have separate gabled roofs.  The north and south elevations are now asymmetrical, the latter aisle wider and higher; the clearstorey is hidden from view by this aisle.  Externally the south elevation still appears transeptal; although the transept has been extended east to create a wider south aisle, the original transept is still expressed with a gable surmounted by a wheel cross final (such also to north transept and east end).

The pointed 3-light in the transept gable may be original, although renewed, it is flanked by Victorian gabletted buttresses. The fenestration of the 19th-century west aisle bay and the 2-bay chapel is identical, square-headed windows with typical Taylor tracery, as have also the pair of 2-light pointed windows in the west end of the aisle and east chapel wall. The former south transept was almost certainly not totally demolished during the construction of the south aisle by J Medland Taylor as has been suggested, as the break in masonry is still clearly visible in the internal south wall.

The narrower and lower north aisle has a 3-light pointed window in the west end, renewed. The aisle has a square-headed 3-light with Perpendicular tracery and a label.

The clearstorey windows have uncusped arches to the 3-light windows, within segmental heads. The north transept diagonal buttresses and some mediaeval masonry, north window as the south transept. 

The interior is low, quite dark and characterised by exposed stone, and has an intense antique atmosphere. Looking west, tall plainly chamfered tower arch filled with pointed glazed screen and carved and balustraded gallery. Looking east, the nave arcades are supported by quatrefoil piers with broad shafts and diagonal hollows, which support moulded 4-centred arches. There are hatchments mounted above the arches. The ceilings are of very low pitched panelled oak, apparently a Victorian replacement of the earlier, similar ceiling, with big bosses and angels to the pierced and gilded beams of the nave and aisles and eagles at the wall plates. The nave floor is of stone slabs with worn ledger slabs set into it.

There are benches at the west end of the nave, bearing panels some of which have inscriptions and carved panels with the date 1665, others clearly taken from the lost pulpit of 1606. The other benches are Victorian and of high quality, with curved ends and tracery panels, as are the choir stalls. The south transept has a piscina, perhaps 13th-century.

The chancel has a plain pointed chancel arch of two orders taken down to engaged columns with moulded capitals, apparently the remnants of the 14th-century chancel, though recut in 1903. An earlier roof line is visible above the chancel arch. Low timber chancel screen with blind tracery. There is a Gothic open tracery screen across the south arch, and another to the south chapel from the transept. Depressed-arch panelled ceiling to the chancel and chapel, painted cream, and complex open timber roof to the transept, typical Medland Taylor elaboration. 

The arcades to the south chapel and north organ chamber (with exposed pipes and console) are of the same profile and style as those of the nave, Victorian stops and Commandment boards. There is a painted plywood tympanum in the moulded pointed arch to the vestry with Virgin and Child, added 1999. An alabaster slab is set in the floor behind the altar with effigies of James de Radcliffe and wife and miniature figures at their feet, early 16th-century. The chancel has a black, red and white patterned marble floor. A fine oak reredos and stained glass make for a dignified focus at the east end.